While aggregate recycling rates in developed countries have plateaued in recent years, the contamination rate of recycling streams due to consumers incorrectly recycling items that cannot be recycled has grown rapidly. We propose that this problem may be partially due to persuasive messages, such as pro-environmental labeling on bins, that encourage recycling, but may lack guidance on how to do so accurately. For example, a number of public garbage receptacles across the United States are labeled “Landfill” instead of “Trash,” encouraging recycling by making the negative impact of garbage more salient. However, this labeling may also lead consumers to incorrectly “recycle” items that cannot be recycled (i.e., overinclusive recycling). Two field studies suggest that pro-environmental receptacle labeling can lead to overinclusive recycling, and a controlled experiment provides preliminary process evidence involving anticipated emotion from trashing versus recycling. Research opportunities and public policy implications for pro-environmental messaging are discussed.

中文翻译：

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填埋还是回收？环保插座标签增加回收污染

尽管近年来发达国家的总体回收率趋于平稳，但由于消费者错误地回收无法回收的物品而导致回收流的污染率迅速上升。我们认为这个问题可能部分是由于有说服力的信息，例如垃圾箱上的环保标签，鼓励回收，但可能缺乏如何准确地这样做的指导。例如，美国各地的许多公共垃圾容器都标有“垃圾填埋场”而不是“垃圾”的标签，通过突出垃圾的负面影响来鼓励回收利用。然而，这种标签也可能导致消费者错误地“回收”无法回收的物品（即过度回收）。两项实地研究表明，环保容器标签会导致过度回收，一个受控实验提供了初步的过程证据，涉及来自垃圾和回收的预期情绪。讨论了环保信息的研究机会和公共政策影响。